The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-09-14

by them. That was q legend; but how
often have our guests come In to gather
up the cold, freezing sorrows of our life,
kindling them into illumination and
warmth and good cheer. He who opens
his house to Christian hospitality turns
those who are strangers into friends.
Years viii 20 by and there viii be great
changes Ia you, and there viii be great
change in them. Some day you viii be
sitting in loneliness, watching bereaye-
ment, and you will get letter in
strange handwriting, and you win look
at the postoffice mark and say: why,
/ don't know anybody living In that
city," and you viii break the envelope,
and there you viii read the story Of
thanks for your Christian generosity
long years before, and how they
have heard afar off of your trouble. And
the letter viii be so fun Of kindly remi-
niscences and Christian coincidence il viii
be plaster large enough 70 cover up all
the deep gashes of your soul. When we
take people into our houses as Christian
guests, we take them into our sympathies
forever In bort, Holland, a soldier
with a sword at his side stopped at a
house, desiring lodging and shelter. The
mittance SAYING that the men of the
house were not at home; but when he
showed his credentials that he had been
honorably discharged from the army, he
was admitted and tarried during the night.
In the night time there was knocking
at the front door, and two ruffians broke
in to despoil that household. No sooner
had they come over the doorsill than the
armed guest, who had primed his piece
and charged it with slugs, met them, and
telling the woman to stand back, / am
happy to say, dropped the two assaulting
desperadoes dead at his feet. Well, now
there are no bandits prowling around to
destroy our houses; but how often it is
that we find those that have been our
guests become our defenders. We gave
them shelter first, and then afterwards in
the great conflicts of life they fought for
our reputation, they fought for our prop
erty. they fought for our soul.
Another reward that comes from Chris
tan hospitality is in the assurance that
we shall have hospitality shown to us and
TO ours. In the upturnings of this life
who knows in what city or what land we
may be thrown, and how much we NAV
need an open door? There may come no
such crisis to- us, but our children may
be thrown into some such strait. He
who is in Christian manner hospitable
has free pass through all Christendom.
1t may be that you will have been dead
fifty years before any such stress shall
come upon one of your descendants; but
do you not suppose that God can remem-
Der fifty years? and the knuckle of the
grandchild Will be heard against the
door of some stranger, and that door will
open, and it will be talked over in
heaven, and it will be said: That mans
grandfather, fifty years ago, gave shelter
to a stranger, and now strangers door
is open for a grandson.
Among the Greeks, after entertaining
and being entertained, they take a piece
of lead and cut it in two, and the host
takes one half of the piece of lead and
the guest takes the other half as they
part. These two pieces of lead are
handed down from generation 10 genera
ton, and from family to family, and
after a while, perhaps one of the families
in want or in trouble go out with this one
piece of lead and find the other family
with the corresponding piece of lead, and
no sooner is the tally completed than the
old hospitality is aroused and eternal
friendship pledged. So the memory of
Christian hospitality will go down from
generation to generation, and from fam
lily to family, and the tally will never be
lost, neither in this world nor the world
10 come.
Mark this: The day will come when
we will all be turned out Of doors
without any exception--bare foot, bare
head, no water in the canteen, no bread
In the haversack, and we will go in that
way into the future world. And | won
der if eternal Inequalities will open be-
fore us, and il we will be received into
everlasting habitations? Francis Fresco-
bald was rich Italian, and he was very
merciful and very hospitable. One day
an Englishman by the name of Thomas
Cromwell appeared at his door asking for
shelter and aims, which were cheerfully
rendered. Frescobald afterward lost all
his property, became very poor, and
wandered up into England, and one
day he saw a procession passing,
and loi it was the lord chancellor of
England, and 10! the lord chancellor of
England was Thomas Cromwell, the very
man whom he had once befriended down
al ltdIN' Int iOiu CHduCtllOT at Tie IESt
glance of Frescobald recognized him and
dismounted from his carriage, threw his
arms around him and embraced him,
paid his debts, invited him to his house
and said: Here are ten pieces of money
to pay for the bread you gave me, and
here are ten pieces of money to provide
for the horse you loaned me, and here
are four bags, in each of which are 400
ducats. Take them and be WE'LL So it
will be at last with us. If we entertain
Christ in the person of his disciples in
this world, when we pass up into the
next country we will meet Christ in a
regal procession, and he will pour all the
wealth of heaven into our lap and open
before US everlasting Inequalities. And
o how tame are the richest entertain
ments we can give ON earth compared
with the regal munifcence which Christ
will display before our souls in heaven!
l was reading the account which
Thomas Fuller gives of the enter
tainment provided by George Neville
Among other things for that banquet
they had 800 quarters of wheat, 104 tuns
of wine, so oxen, 5000 capons, 200
cranes, 200 kids, 1000 pigeons, 1000
rabbits, 204 bitterns, 200 pheasants, 500
cartridges, 400 plover, 100 quail, 100
curlews, $500 hot pasties, 1000 cold
venison pasties. 1900 custards-the Earl
of Warwick acting as steward. and ser
vitors ], 1000. o, what grand feast was
that! but then compare it with the pro-
vision which God has made for us on
high: that great banquet hour; the 144,-
600 as guests; all the harps and trum-
pets of heaven as the orchestra; the vim
tage of the celestial hills poured into the
tankards; all the fruits of the orchards
of God piled on the golden platters; the
angels of the Lord for cup bearers, and
the once folded starry banner of the blue
sky flung out over the scene, while seated
at the head of the table shall be the One
who eighteen centuries ago declared: Il
was stranger and We took me in. Our
sins pardoned, may we all mingle in
those Inequalities.
a n..x